How To Remove Coin-Hive.com (without buying software)

To start with, browser hijackers are not malicious and hazardous in the real sense of these words. Coin-Hive.com is just a standard representative of this advertising software group. As a normal hijacker, it may integrate itself in the most popular browsers you can install – from Chrome and Explorer to Opera and Firefox. Every single one of them may get affected by this program and may start acting in a different and even strange way because of the infection with a hijacker. (You can find our removal guide at the bottom of the article.) As a result, some unwanted redirections to various webpages you don’t want to load might take place. You may also face several modifications of the way your browsers look – normally, some changes of the default search engine and homepage occur. And finally, a rather intensive generation of a great number of pop-ups and other cyber ads is also possible.

What kind of an infection is the one caused by Coin-Hive.com (or any other hijacker version)?

Truly, hijackers may indeed infiltrate any computer and browser app. Nonetheless, the contamination they could cause is not generally malicious, just really annoying. Oftentimes such programs are simply too irritating and seriously get on the nerves of the affected users. On the complete contrary, infections caused by genuinely malicious programs such as Trojans or Ransomware versions are indeed more than dangerous (absolutely unlike the ones caused by a browser hijacker) and could result in file encryption, screen-locking; or other criminal activities like spying, data theft or anything illegal that could be done on the web.

If browser hijackers are not versions of malware, why are they so annoying?

The hijackers we are aware of might cause lots of annoyance since they may be able to send the victim user to web platforms that are not among the ones the user has ever intended to visit. Also, they might alter the default browser homepage and/or search engine; and provoke the production of a very big number of different online ads. This might happen as they have been programmed to perform such irritating activities in the first place because of the need of their programmers to generate higher profits. Usually, software developers earn more money if the hijackers they design are able to invoke more intensive advertising campaigns online (more redirecting, more ads, more websites/search engines and homepages promoted, etc.).

The way in which the majority of the hijacker infections occur:

Generally speaking, hijackers could be hiding inside almost everything that could be found on the Internet. Some of these programs may be included in torrents; others could come as components of web pages. Some versions may get spread via spam or online advertisements. However, the most common manner in which devices get infected by Coin-Hive.com and similar programs is when their owners download and incorrectly install any free bundle from the web. If you still don’t know anything about this term, bundles represent mixtures of lots of diverse programs, bundled and distributed together. Inside such a bundle you could find games and various apps, Adware, browser hijackers and other kinds of software. Nonetheless, keep in mind that the mere act of accessing a bundle is NEVER the real reason for any contamination. But installing such a combo in an incorrect way really is.

Performing an installation process like a PRO and thus avoiding programs such as Coin-Hive.com:

In order to complete a proper installation process, you must proceed using either the Customized or the Advanced feature that the installer displays. The other possible options such as the Quick, Default or Automatic ones are not a wise choice when it comes to your computer’s safety and health. Therefore, it is in your best interest to try to always avoid them. Only the Custom way of installing all the programs you download from the Internet is going to give you the choice to opt out of all unwanted software from any bundle.

As far as removing this hijacker goes, you can easily take care of Coin-Hive.com with the help of the Removal Guide we have designed. Its detailed instructions will assist you in achieving that. Make sure that all the steps there are followed as closely as possible because only in this way will you have a proper uninstallation process.

Coin-Hive.com “Virus” File Removal

I

Before you begin completing the steps from the following guide, we advise you to place a bookmark on this page or have it opened on a separate device since some of the following steps will require you to close your browser.

Open the Task Manger by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Go to the processes/details Tab and take a look at the resulting list. If you see a process with the name of the unwanted program or looks shady, right-click on it and select Open File Location. If you believe it is part of the infection, delete the files.

III

Use the Winkey+R key combination to open the Run window and in the search field type appwiz.cpl. Hit Enter and in the resulting list, look for recently installed programs that look potentially unwanted. If you find anything – uninstall it.

IV

Re-open Run and this tie type msconfig. Hit Enter again and in the resulting window, go to the Startup tab. See if there are any shady programs there and if anything looks suspicious uncheck it and then select OK.

V

In the Start Menu search field, copy-paste the following line: notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts . Open the first result and look at the bottom of the file where it says “Localhost”. If there are any IP addresses below that, tell us what they are in the comments since they might be coming from the unwanted software.

VI

Type Network Connections in the Windows search field and click on the first result. Right-click on the adapter that you are using at the moment and go to Properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP) > Properties.

If the DNS line is not set to Obtain DNS server automatically, make sure to check that option.

Now go to Advanced > DNS tab and remove everything in DNS server addresses, in order of use.

VII

Right-click on your browser’s icon and select Properties. Delete everything in Target that is after .exe”.

For Chrome users

Close Chrome and go to this folder: C:/Users/*Your username*/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data. Change the name of the Default folder to Backup Default. Re-open Chrome.

For Firefox users

Open Firefox and click on the Main Menu > Add-ons > Extensions. If you see anything suspicious there, remove it.

For IE users

When you open the browser, go to Tools > Manage Ad-ons and remove the unwanted software if you see it there. Next, go to Tools > Internet options and change the homepage URL to whatever you are normally using.

VIII

Open Run (Winkey+R), type Regedit and click on OK. Next, press Ctrl+F and type the malware name. Hit Enter and delete everything that gets found.

If there are no results from the search, manually visit those folders in the Registry Editor.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main

If you find there any suspicious keys that have names with a lot of random letters and numbers, delete them or if you are not sure, tell us in the comments what you saw.